Vine Abiders Podcast

In this episode of Vine Abiders, Chris White talks with Drew Whitton, author of Atonement and Union with Christ: Rethinking Penal Substitution in Light of Scripture’s Priestly and Participatory Logic.Drew explains why his study of Scripture led him to reject penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) in favor of a model centered on purification and union with Christ.We discuss the Old Testament sacrificial system, why blood was used to cleanse rather than punish, the significance of the Day of Atonement, and how Jesus fulfills the role of both sacrifice and high priest. We also explore the argument from Hebrews that Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and ongoing heavenly intercession are essential to understanding His atoning work.Finally, we discuss union with Christ—what it means to die, rise, and be seated with Him, and why abiding in Christ is central to our salvation.Get Drew Whitton’s book:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HGL9DM84Find Drew’s work:Search for Grafted Theology on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, X, and Facebook. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

What does it really mean to have faith in Jesus? This short animation explores faith as allegiance: believing the gospel and pledging your loyalty to Jesus as King.Beginning with a royal announcement in the Roman world, we explore the language of the gospel, the Greek word pistis, and the connection between faith and obedience. Drawing on the argument in Matthew Bates’s book Salvation by Allegiance Alone, the video asks what changes when we understand faith as loyalty to the risen King.Why does Jesus ask, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” And why does James say that faith without works is dead?Obedience does not earn his mercy. It follows from giving him your allegiance.Notes:My new Books:How to Quit Drinking Forever - The Hard Truth for Christians:https://www.amazon.com/How-Quit-Drinking-Forever-Christians-ebook/dp/B0HHQWHGSJSeven Pretrib Problems and the Prewrath Rapture:https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Pretrib-Problems-Prewrath-Rapture-ebook/dp/B0HMFNTX7PNew Bible Prophecy Podcast:Alan’s Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@bibleprophecyanswersMy Bible Prophecy Podcast:https://bibleprophecytalk.com/Animation by Artiseca Studio:https://artiseca.comExplore Matthew Bates’s book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone:https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801097975Scripture references: Mark 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Matthew 28:18; Luke 6:46; James 2:17.#BiblicalFaith #JesusIsKing #ChristianAnimation This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

Get the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Quit-Drinking-Forever-Christians/dp/B0HHR129DXWhat does it mean to truly repent—and how can faith in Jesus Christ change your relationship with alcohol?In this complete audiobook, Chris White shares his own journey out of drunkenness and examines what the Bible teaches about repentance, the fear of the Lord, and freedom from sin. He explores faith as allegiance to Christ, the seriousness of Scripture’s warnings, and the power of the Holy Spirit to help believers live differently.Written for Christians who struggle with drinking or have grown comfortable making excuses for it, How to Quit Drinking Forever challenges familiar assumptions and offers a direct call to turn wholeheartedly to God. Alongside biblical teaching, Chris addresses common questions, offers guidance for beginning the Christian life, and tells the longer story of how his own life changed.Listen to all 13 chapters of How to Quit Drinking Forever: The Hard Truth for Christians by Chris White. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

In this episode of Vine Abiders, I’m sharing an interview I recently did with Phil Baker on his excellent podcast, Reclaiming the Faith.Phil and I discuss my book The Deformation and explore some of the major theological shifts that have shaped modern Christianity. We begin with my own journey away from Once Saved, Always Saved and then dig into what the New Testament means by the “gospel” and “faith”—including the idea of faith as allegiance to Jesus as King.From there, we discuss Augustine’s influence on Christian theology, original sin and total depravity, Romans 7, Martin Luther and the Reformation understanding of “works,” the Sermon on the Mount, and how the early church understood the death and atonement of Jesus.Toward the end of the conversation, things become more personal as Phil asks me about losing my wife to cancer and what that experience taught me about suffering. We talk about the biblical idea that life is a test, why trials matter, and why the choices we make in the midst of suffering may have eternal significance.Also Mentioned: How to Quit Drinking ForeverI recently released a new book, How to Quit Drinking Forever: The Hard Truth for Christians. It tells the story of my own freedom from alcohol and lays out what I believe Scripture teaches about repentance, freedom from bondage, and the genuine power available to Christians—not merely to stop drinking, but to become free from the desire to drink.How to Quit Drinking Forever: The Hard Truth for Christianshttps://www.amazon.com/How-Quit-Drinking-Forever-Christians/dp/B0HHR129DXIn This Episode* Why I changed my mind about Once Saved, Always Saved* The gospel as the announcement that Jesus is King* What “faith” means and why allegiance matters* Augustine, original sin, total depravity, and free will* A different way of understanding Romans 7* Martin Luther, “works,” and the Sermon on the Mount* How Reformation theology changed the understanding of atonement* Penal substitutionary atonement, Christus Victor, and the Old Testament sacrificial system* The scapegoat and what it means for Jesus to “bear” our sins* Why suffering so often becomes a test of faithfulness* What losing my wife taught me about endurance, trials, and eternityThanks again to Phil Baker for having me on Reclaiming the Faith. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

Chris White talks with Chris P. Bacon, a brother he’s followed on X for years, about how theology actually lands in a person’s life. They cover once-saved-always-saved, the hard verses, and what it means to abide in Christ instead of living under a cloud of defeat.Bacon’s story is that a change in what he believed about Scripture changed how he walked. He talks about 1 John, the warnings, and the difference between half-hearted repentance and real freedom in Christ. Audio only.Chris P. Bacon’s X profile This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

There is a line in Hebrews that Christians quote often, but I am not sure we have always stopped long enough to ask what it actually means.Hebrews says that Jesus became flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the devil.Hebrews 2:14-15Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.That passage raises several questions.What is “the power of death”?In what sense did Satan have it?How did Jesus’ death destroy the one who had that power?And why would Satan participate in the crucifixion if the crucifixion was the very event that would undo him?That last question is especially important. The New Testament gives us reason to believe that the crucifixion was, in some sense, a mystery hidden from the rulers of this age.1 Corinthians 2:8Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.That verse may refer to earthly rulers, spiritual rulers, or both. Either way, the logic is striking. Had they understood what was happening, they would not have crucified Jesus.So what did they misunderstand?More specifically, what did Satan misunderstand?My proposal is that the answer has been hiding in the Day of Atonement ritual, especially in the part of that ritual Christians often neglect: the scapegoat.The Day of Atonement did not involve only one goat. It involved two. One goat was “for the LORD,” slain, and its blood was brought into the holy place. The other goat was sent away alive, bearing the sins of the people into the wilderness, to Azazel.If Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, then we should expect Him to fulfill both goats, not merely one. The first goat helps explain Christ’s blood, priesthood, resurrection, and heavenly offering. The second goat, I believe, helps explain His descent into Hades and the defeat of Satan.The scapegoat is the Satan-defeating part of the Day of Atonement.That is the thesis.Blood, Life, and the Logic of AtonementBefore we can talk about the scapegoat, we need to begin with the first goat and the broader logic of atonement.Jacob Milgrom, the great Leviticus scholar, argued that blood functions in the sacrificial system as a kind of ritual detergent. That may sound strange at first, but the logic is biblical. Blood cleanses because blood contains life.Leviticus gives us one of the clearest explanations in Scripture for why blood makes atonement.Leviticus 17:11For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’.The blood is effectual because of the life that is in it.This matters because sin pollutes sacred space. Israel’s sins defile the camp, the tabernacle, and the place where God dwells among His people. If sin leads to death, then it makes sense that life cleanses what death has polluted.This also means that, in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the slaughter of the animal is not itself the whole act of atonement. The animal is slain so that the blood can be obtained. The blood is then applied to the holy place. That application is the atoning act.This is where David Moffitt’s work on Hebrews becomes important. Moffitt has argued that Hebrews does not treat the cross as the whole of Christ’s priestly offering. Christ dies, rises, ascends, and then enters the heavenly sanctuary as the true high priest.Hebrews says:Hebrews 9:11-12But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.And again:Hebrews 9:24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:On this reading, the resurrection is not an afterthought. Christ must rise because a dead priest cannot enter the heavenly holy place. He must ascend because the true sanctuary is in heaven. He must present His blood because atonement involves priestly application, not merely slaughter.That explains one half of the Day of Atonement.But it does not yet explain Hebrews 2.Hebrews does not merely say that Christ makes atonement. It says that through death He destroys the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil.How does the Day of Atonement defeat the devil?A recent scholarly proposal by Katie Marcar turns to Passover and Exodus imagery. In that model, Satan is like Pharaoh, the realm of death is like Egypt, and Christ leads a new exodus out of bondage. I think that typology is valuable. But it still leaves a mechanism question unanswered.How, exactly, is Satan’s power broken?My contention is that the missing mechanism is the second goat.The Forgotten GoatLeviticus 16 describes two goats.Leviticus 16:8-10And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.The first goat is killed. Its blood is taken into the holy place.The second goat is not killed. It is presented alive. The high priest lays both hands on its head, confesses Israel’s sins over it, and sends it away.Leviticus 16:20-22And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.That second goat is not a decorative appendage to the ritual. Leviticus says it is part of the atonement. It bears the people’s sins away.So if Christ fulfills the Day of Atonement, where does He fulfill this goat?The New Testament repeatedly describes Christ in sin-bearing language.Isaiah 53:6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.Isaiah 53:11-12He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.2 Corinthians 5:21For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.1 Peter 2:24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.Hebrews 9:28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.This is scapegoat language.Christ does not merely die. He bears sin.The crucial question is where He bears it.The first goat’s blood goes up into the holy place. The second goat goes out, away from the camp, into the wilderness, to Azazel.If Hebrews’ heavenly sanctuary is a real place, and Christ’s priestly ascent is a… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

If you have ever sat through an Easter sermon and walked away faintly dissatisfied with the explanation of why the resurrection matters, you are not alone. Preachers rightly treat it as the hinge of the Christian faith. Paul says that if it did not happen, we are still in our sins, so it clearly has something to do with the atonement. And yet the reasons usually given for it always struck me as thin.I once thought I understood this doctrine well. After a season of reading (the books are listed at the end), I have come to think my old view was not so much wrong as badly incomplete. The reality is stranger and far more important than I had been taught. Let me start with the three answers you have probably heard, and then build toward what I think is actually going on.Three Familiar AnswersFirst, that the resurrection vindicates Jesus’s teaching. Tim Keller put it crisply: if Jesus rose, you have to accept everything he said; if he did not, none of it matters. I more or less agree, but I would hesitate to make rising from the dead the thing that certifies a teacher’s words. The Antichrist, by my reading, will appear to rise from the dead too. More to the point, I cannot find an explicit teaching in Scripture that says we should believe Jesus because he rose. It feels more like worldly wisdom than a biblical argument. I will give Keller the benefit of the doubt, but it does not get to the heart of things.Second, that the resurrection proves Christ’s death accomplished salvation. John Piper frames it as proof that the death of Jesus was an all-sufficient price, that without the resurrection his death was a failure. In this model the resurrection is essentially a receipt: God’s wrath has been satisfied, so he raises his Son to show the transaction cleared. It is intensely cross-centered, and that is exactly what I want to challenge. The atonement could not have been completed until Jesus rose and ascended. If that is true, then the resurrection cannot merely be proof that the work was already finished at the cross. It is part of the work itself.Third, that the resurrection gives us hope of our own. This is the one you hear on Easter most often and at funerals, and it is the one I fully agree with. Christ is the firstfruits; because he rose, we have solid hope that we will too. But there is far more to say, and the deeper reasons are what I want to walk through.What Is the Atonement, Exactly?Before we can say why the resurrection matters, we have to ask a question most Christians never think to ask. What is the atonement?Most people would answer that it is Jesus dying for our sins on the cross. That is not wrong, but it mistakes the opening act for the whole drama. In the logic of the Old Testament sacrificial system, the death of the victim was never the moment of atonement. It was the preparation for it.This is not a controversial claim among scholars of Israel’s sacrificial system. The slaughter of the animal, by itself, accomplished nothing. Its purpose was to obtain the blood, and the purpose of the blood was to be carried to a sacred place and applied. The application was the atoning act, whether that meant sprinkling blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement or on the various implements of the tabernacle. Leviticus 17:11 is about the only place in the Bible that explains why this works:‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’The operative idea is that the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.. We meet this theme early in Scripture, in the severe prohibition against eating blood. Blood carries life, and that is precisely why it makes atonement. Atonement is fundamentally about cleansing, and life cleanses because what it cleanses is the opposite of life, which is death.Here is the picture, and it is worth holding onto. At the center of the tabernacle dwelt God’s own presence, the pillar of cloud and fire between the cherubim. I take this to be the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who will one day dwell in the temple of our bodies. The connection is close to one-to-one, and you will not fully grasp what the New Testament says about the Spirit until you see that the Spirit was that pillar of fire.Sin, which leads to death, defiled the place where this presence dwelt. (Leviticus 16:16–19)Atonement was the cleansing that kept it habitable, so that the Spirit would remain in Israel’s midst. When the nation sank into sin and the cleansing lapsed, the presence departed.So in the old system, atonement was not finished until the blood reached the sacred object. On the Day of Atonement the high priest, having first purified himself so he would not die, carried the blood into the Holy of Holies for one purpose: to place it on the mercy seat and withdraw. Until the blood touched that lid, no atonement had been made. Hold that thought, because it is about to do a great deal of work.The Lid of the ArkIf atonement requires blood on the mercy seat, then atonement cannot have been completed at the cross, because there was no Ark of the Covenant at Golgotha. That is not a clever objection of mine. It is the very point the author of Hebrews builds his argument around, and it is why Jesus had to ascend to where the true mercy seat is.The Hebrew name for that lid is kapporeth, from the same root that gives us Yom Kippur. It means, roughly, to atone. The Day of Atonement is the day, and the kapporeth is the place, of atonement. The phrase is almost circular: atonement is made on the place of atonement. The lid is so central that its very name is atonement.The New Testament writers refer to that same object with the Greek word hilasterion. Translated as “mercy seat,” it renders the Hebrew faithfully. Translated as “atonement,” it is also fair, since that is what the word carried. But some translations render it “propitiation,” meaning the satisfaction of a god’s wrath, and that I think is a mistake. Many of the translators, including those behind the King James, were Calvinists for whom atonement simply was the satisfaction of wrath, so substituting one word for the other cost them nothing. It costs us a great deal, because it smuggles a whole theory of the atonement into a word that never meant it.Hebrews and the Heavenly TabernacleThe book of Hebrews was written, in part, to explain how atonement works, and the author is insistent on a point modern readers tend to spiritualize away: there is a real tabernacle in heaven. The one Moses built was a copy and shadow of it. When I have tried to describe this to people, they reach for “in a spiritual sense,” but the writer of Hebrews means something more concrete. The cleansing capable of pouring God’s Spirit out on all flesh, as happened at Pentecost, could only be accomplished by a sacrifice offered not in an earthly sanctuary but in the heavenly original. He grounds this in Moses himself:Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.And he presses it further: Christ entered not the holy places made with hands, the mere figures of the true, but heaven itself, to appear before God for us. Whatever reality you grant the earthly Ark, Hebrews ranks it below the heavenly one, which is the real thing.Around this the author builds a careful case. First he must show that Jesus can be a high priest at all, since he came from Judah, not Levi. His answer is that Jesus belongs to a different and older order, the priesthood of Melchizedek. Then he establishes the real sanctuary above. Then he explains why a new covenant was needed in the first place: the old one was limited at every point, by the mortality of its priests, the earthliness of its tabernacle, the blood of animals, all of which capped how f… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

In this personal podcast, I talk about the death of my wife, Connie, after her battle with a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. I share memories of Connie’s extraordinary life, our marriage, her faith, and the many lessons I learned through suffering, caregiving, cancer, prayer, and grief. I also discuss the realities of the cancer industry, the spiritual nature of trials, and the peace that can come through enduring hardship faithfully.C.E. White Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/C.E.-White/author/B077V7FVPT This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

This was a impromptu podcast in response to a question I received. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com

There are two words that sit right at the center of everything Christians talk about. Two words you’ve heard a thousand times.Gospel. And faith.Every pastor assumes that everybody knows what these words mean.But what I want to suggest to you today is that most of us don’t really know what either of them means.And I don’t mean we’re fuzzy on the details. I mean we’ve gotten the definitions of these words completely wrong.I want to be clear. This is not some fringe idea. The scholars behind this reassessment, people like Drs. Matthew Bates, Scot McKnight, Nijay K. Gupta, N.T. Wright, are not radicals. They are working from the original Greek texts, from the historical context of the first century, and from church history. And they keep arriving at the same conclusions.This presentation will be in two parts. Part One: what the gospel actually is.And Part Two: what faith, that is the Greek word pistis, actually means in context.PART ONE: THE GOSPELFirst, let’s talk about what the Gospel Is NotIf you ask most Christians today to define the gospel, you’re likely going to get one of two answers.The first answer sounds something like this: we are all sinners. We’ve broken God’s law. And because God is holy and just, that sin has to be dealt with. The good news, the gospel, is that Jesus dealt with it for us. He died in our place.And now, if you believe that, if you put your faith in what he did, you are forgiven, you are right with God, and you have eternal life.Those are real things that Scripture more or less teaches.But the argument we’re going to make is that that’s not the gospel. Or at least, it’s not a complete definition of the gospel. And treating it as the whole thing produces real problems.The second common answer to what the gospel is is similar: that the gospel is specifically what happened at the cross, that Jesus died for our sins.Different traditions offer various theories about how his death paid for our sins, but they would say that understanding and believing that our sins were dealt with at the cross is the gospel.The fact that Jesus died for our sins is absolutely part of the gospel.We’re going to see that Paul explicitly includes it in his gospel presentations. But saying the gospel is essentially the story of how the cross dealt with our sin problem, taking that one piece and calling it the whole thing, that’s where we start to go wrong.Both reductions, justification by faith as the gospel, and atonement theory as the gospel, share the same underlying flaw: they make the rest of the ministry of Jesus theologically unnecessary.If justification by faith is the gospel, the four books we literally call the Gospels don’t contain the gospel.Everything Jesus said and did becomes background material. You could construct the entire gospel without ever opening Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.So if those things aren’t the gospel, what is?Start with the word itself. Euangelion, the Greek word we translate as gospel, means good news. Specifically though, it’s the kind of news that gets publicly proclaimed.And in the ancient Greco-Roman world, it had an even more specific meaning. It was the kind of announcement you made when a king won a battle.When a royal heir took the throne. When the political order of the realm fundamentally changed.It was a public proclamation so that the people of that realm would know that everything is different now, that they had a new king.However, in the Christian context I like to think of the gospel this way: you’re trying to convince someone that Jesus is their rightful king, and to do that, you often need to explain the story of Jesus’s royal career, his pre-existence with God in heaven, how he became a man, his fulfillment of these ancient prophecies about the coming king, his death for sins, his resurrection, his enthronement, and his coming return. The four books called the Gospels tell this story because the whole story matters when trying to convince someone that they have a king and that king is worthy of their devotion.For a first-century Jew, part of that case was genealogical. They already knew a king was coming. So you had to show them that Jesus came from the line of David, that he fulfilled what the prophets said, that he was the king that they had been waiting for.If you had to pick a single part of the gospel that best captured this idea, it might be the resurrection and enthronement, because that is when Jesus took his seat at God’s right hand on the throne prepared for him.This is why Hebrews can say Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before him.” There was something waiting on the other side of his mission on earth. The throne was the prize. The suffering was the path to it.The resurrection and enthronement in heaven was the moment of transfer.Jesus moved from Son of God to Son-of-God-in-Power. And this idea is given prominent place in Romans 1:2-4, which is one of the most clear definitions of the gospel according to Paul:“This gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:2-4)Then there’s the passage in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul spends at least 25 verses explaining the Gospel. He says that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures (v. 3), that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day. Paul then goes on to describe at length how Jesus appeared to specific witnesses.After that, he explains why the resurrection matters for his readers, showing how it is connected to their own eternal life. Finally, in verses 24-25, he connects the resurrection to Jesus’s reign in heaven, stating that Jesus must reign until all His enemies are put under His feet.And then there’s Paul’s gospel presentation in Philippians 2:5-11 which says:Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)Paul’s highlights here include the pre-existence of Christ in divine form, his voluntary self-emptying and incarnation as a human being, his life of servanthood, his obedient death on the cross, his subsequent exaltation by God, and his universal lordship over all creation, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.Notice where the story ends in all three of those gospel messages. With Jesus as a ruling, authoritative king in heaven. That’s the climax. Not the cross. The throne.Different people will need to enter this story from a different angle. The guilt-ridden need to hear about the death that cleanses. The enslaved need to hear about the king who broke the powers. The skeptic needs the historical witnesses. The person drowning in meaninglessness needs to know history has a king and a destination.The entry point varies. But the destination is always the same: Jesus is the rightful king of the universe, not one option among many, but the actual Lord to whom every life is accountable.PART TWO: WHAT IS FAITH?But now that we know what the gospel actually is, we need to know how do we respond to it? And that brings us to Part Two of this presentation: what is the meaning of faith?We know that the correct response to hearing the gospel is faith. We have heard it all of our lives.The problem is, we have forgotten what… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vineabiders.substack.com